is the classic story of girl meets boy who is a prince that she needs to marry to save her bankrupt family.
It takes place today, on campus at St. Clarens Academy. A prestigious private college for the world's richest kids.
The competition is fierce. Luckily, Laura has a gift for reading people. This is a comedy about using pop psychology to get what you want.
Laura, 19, loves her family. But a flash bankruptcy has brought her almost billionaire parents to the edge of divorce. Laura stepped up with a business plan: spend their last savings on her tuition for the ultra-exclusive St. Clarens Academy, a finishing school for the world's stupid rich, where she will marry a prince to save the family.
Now Laura must use her powerful people skills to fit in, gain allies, climb the social ladder, outmaneuver the queen bees, avoid the wrath of Principal Zaiser, and bag herself a prince.
It has the self-help appeal of How to Win Friends and Influence People the voyeurism of Rich Kids of Instagram and the comedy spirit of Thirty Rock and Broad City.
Each episode is one day. Laura is presented with a challenge to get closer to the prince.
She uses her sketchbook to visualize a psychological insight about people (like herd mentality or social chameleon). This idea is the theme for A and B plots.
In A, Laura uses her insight to get closer to the prince. B follows a crisis for one of her core friends. A and B intersect at the end.
The big arc is Laura's quest to save her family by marrying the prince. Along the way, she debates chasing other sons (and daughters) of various "new money" empires.
Unfortunately, Laura starts to fall for Quinn, a lowly working class boy who attends St. Clarens because his parents are the custodians. But then again... there are rumours that some students are royalty in disguise.
At the end of season one, Laura is devastated to learn that her parents have already divorced.
In season two, the stakes are raised when Laura discovers that her extended family’s credit is maxed, banking on her success. She convincers herself that marrying the prince will reunite her parents. Also, she learns the truth about Quinn.
is a glorious campus, evoking all of our romantic European fantasies of grand halls, arches, stone, mountains, and a horse in a meadow.
St. Clarens has a storied tradition of grooming royalty and world leaders. Over the past fifty years, internationalism and new money has threatened their stodgy traditions.
The school’s strict dress codes and archaic rituals are being eroded by the crass popularity war from the “new money” rich kids.
Our hero. Positive. Proactive. Joyful with a dark side. Mastermind. Laura's constant joking and optimism is in stark contrast to her true feelings. She has a bleak view of human nature.
Flashbacks reveal that, in grade 11, Laura ruled her high school as the Iron Bitch, an absolute, catty monster. Her family’s bankruptcy forced change upon her. She plummeted in popularity, was backstabbed by frenemies, and began to appreciate her family and make genuine friendships with the outsiders at her school.
Laura knows what it takes to claw to the top of the social food chain but does she want to reopen that part of herself? She’s also terrified that her motives will be exposed. Laura draws a lot of strength from her parents. The heart of this entire scheme is to keep them together. They hide their divorce from her.
A mystery. We suspect he's a royal nice guy so a crass seduction will not work. We never see his face. The gold diggers endlessly craft their reputations to stay on his radar.
The competition. Dominant. Ruthless. Control. Brittney is a queen bee, a ruthless master of deception and gossip. She’s dead set on marrying the prince.
The rebel. Authentic. Trusting. Grounded. Quinn doesn’t think like the average, status-obsessed, St. Clarens student. He’s outside of the “keeping up with the Kardashians” mentality and anti-technology/social media. His parents are the head custodians, making him the only lower class student allowed to attend St. Clarens. He's an idealist, trusting, naive, and reliable. He challenges Laura's perspective that people are selfish, weak, and always on the verge of disappointing each other.
The artist. Wild. Controversial. Talented. She lives for pure art and experimentation, free from all obligations. She has very radical points of view about the sacred rights of the Earth, putting her in opposition to her family's fortune in global mining.
A tech savvy, Google Glass wearing, next-generation nerd. He's snarky because no one gives him the respect he deserves. Dibbs comes from the "new money" of Silicon Valley and refuses to accept the stigma of the 80s and 90s. This is 2015, the age of the nerd. His people run the world.
The draconian tyrant of St. Clarens. Her reputation has taken a serious hit because "new money" students have been mingling with "old money" students under her nose. She's hell-bent on expelling gold diggers.
An elderly guidance counselor who lived an enormous life of danger. She believes in taking risks.
Senegal, a former Lost Boy of Sudan, lets everyone know he was "saved" by a billionaire family. On the outside, he loves shopping, partying hard, and sailing. On the inside he is a scared little boy trying to fit in with these crazy rich people, wishing he was back at the refugee camp with his friends. He confides in Laura that he’s a prisoner in paradise. His name isn't even Senegal. That's an entirely different country in Africa. He was too afraid to correct his new parents.
A supermodel. Ambitious. Energy. Riya is from an Indian telecommunications fortune. She’s always dreamed about being a model. Now that she’s arrived, she’s not sure if that’s her calling. She has a big heart and any image of a child in poverty makes her want to give it all up to help them… but she can’t abandon Gucci.
The emotional heart of the series is a coming-of-age drama. It’s about young people struggling to fit in, learning who they are, and discovering if wealth is a key or a prison.
We present one pop psychology concept each episode. What is an alpha male? How does birth order influence personality? Are we who we pretend to be? Also, we have all the fun of high life voyeurism. It’s a live action Rich Kids of Instagram.
We're watching to the end of each episode to see if Laura will come out on top and get closer to marrying the prince. But is that what we want for her? Also, the absurdist comedy can take a left turn without signaling so you’re watching for a joke to blow up and pay off.
Also, Kate Middleton met Prince William in college in 2001. We're betting she wasn't the only one interested in a royal boyfriend. It's a scenerio that begs our imaginations to run wild.
A: Laura uses the concept of “mirroring” to make new friends. But she mirrors so many people that she begins to forget who she is.
B: Dibbs loses his mind, afraid that his whole personality comes from plagiarizing others. He becomes obsessed with originality and becomes alienated by using his own new lingo (Dibbs-speak).
A: Does birth order affect relationships? Laura and Brittney battle, positioning themselves as a personality type that best complements the “eldest child” Prince.
B: Helen realizes she’s been acting more like a middle child her whole life and she’s hell bent on cashing in on all of the youngest child benefits.
A: Laura understands the boys at her school as obsessed with hierarchies. She’s pressured to upload a nude photo for the alpha male.
B: Dibbs sets out to prove that his crew of nerds belongs on top.
A: Laura explores the “fake it ‘til you make it” mentality and worries about becoming her passive aggressive mother.
B: Senegal must decide if he will completely abandon his past as a Lost Boy.